Get your self a beeman r-7 break barrel and you won't regret it (they are not cheap air rifles). I have one in .20 cal that I bought tuned from vortek that I will never sell. I plink steel auto reset targets at 30 yards (limit from my garage to my shed). Most fun you can have short of shooting a ruger 10-22.

Originally Posted By jal777:Get your self a beeman r-7 break barrel and you won't regret it (they are not cheap air rifles). I have one in .20 cal that I bought tuned from vortek that I will never sell. I plink steel auto reset targets at 30 yards (limit from my garage to my shed). Most fun you can have short of shooting a ruger 10-22.

I agree, I shoot my air rifles more than anything else by a wide margin. If you can be accurate with an air rifle you have a good chance of being accurate with a "real" rifle.

Originally Posted By twonami:Can't go wrong with a RWS54 in .22 cal.
Stay away from the cheap Beeman rifles.

Good advice. Break barrel air rifles are not accurate. A decent pre charged pneumatic rifle is very accurate and you can practice at 100 yards and in.

I've sniped over 100 squirrels with my Gamo Big Cat. Many were head shots from a fair distance. It's also held zero for almost 2 years now. The only thing I had to do was replace the terrible stock trigger with a CharlieDaTuna trigger. I may not be able to hit a dime at distance consistently, but this thing is pretty impressive for a cheap air rifle.

Disclaimer: This is only my personal opinion, and you know what they say about those.

Originally Posted By twonami:Can't go wrong with a RWS54 in .22 cal.
Stay away from the cheap Beeman rifles.

Real shame as the Beemans used to be top quality (had an R8 decades ago and regret getting rid of it).

AFARR

The German beeman rifles are actually rebranded weihrach rifles. Nowadays they added a cheap Chinese line. The German beeman/weihrach are still top notch quality. I always have my spring air rifles tuned. It makes a night and day difference in recoil noise and in some cases accuracy

Originally Posted By twonami:Can't go wrong with a RWS54 in .22 cal.
Stay away from the cheap Beeman rifles.

Real shame as the Beemans used to be top quality (had an R8 decades ago and regret getting rid of it).

AFARR

The German beeman rifles are actually rebranded weihrach rifles. Nowadays they added a cheap Chinese line. The German beeman/weihrach are still top notch quality. I always have my spring air rifles tuned. It makes a night and day difference in recoil noise and in some cases accuracy

(I actually knew that they were the old H. Weirauch rifles, but that R8 shot well....much better than I can shoot).

AFARR

“We live in a society of excuses, pleading for second chances, and unwillingness to take responsibility for our actions,”

Originally Posted By twonami:Can't go wrong with a RWS54 in .22 cal.
Stay away from the cheap Beeman rifles.

Real shame as the Beemans used to be top quality (had an R8 decades ago and regret getting rid of it).

AFARR

The German beeman rifles are actually rebranded weihrach rifles. Nowadays they added a cheap Chinese line. The German beeman/weihrach are still top notch quality. I always have my spring air rifles tuned. It makes a night and day difference in recoil noise and in some cases accuracy

(I actually knew that they were the old H. Weirauch rifles, but that R8 shot well....much better than I can shoot).

AFARR

I agree, I shot a tuned R8 some time ago and it sent pellets exactly when I was holding. A sure classic air rifle that I wish they still made.

Originally Posted By Jag-grad:
What's your budget and expectations? There's a large range of air rifles out there.

Has to be accurate up to 50 yrds.
Preference to American made and definitely no Chinese crap.
Budget anywhere from 250 up to 600.

Benjamin Marauder. Get as much scope as you can afford. I have a Nikon rimfire scope, pretty pleased except for very close range parallax error. Made in USA .

The only issue with it is you have to adjust it to get the most out of it. Straight out of the box, it is very accurate, just not at 50 yards because it is rather anemic in that tune. There are three, independent adjustments, the hammer spring, hammer stroke and transfer port. Then there is the trigger pull which is great straight out of the box.

The other issue is ammo. Being a 10 shot repeater, you will burn through pellets FAST. I go through 1000 a month. Wal Mart pellets are slim in selection, they don't normally carry the Crosman Premier heavy pellets in .177. Online, the pricing structure has gotten weird, 500 count tins are cheaper than the 1250 count boxes .

Finally, charging the beast can be expensive if you go the high pressure SCBA cylinder. The Benjamin hand pump works but humidity in the air kills it fast. With some ordinary fittings and supplies, you can build an air dryer. Better yet, you can build a hand pump SUPERCHARGING system that is far more effective in drying the air AND making it much faster. An ordinary air tank with a pound or two of silica gel in it dries the air, then a regulator set to 15 PSI feeds the inlet of the Benjamin hand pump. Half the strokes, all dry air.

What is wrong? We tolerate mediocrity and call it diversity.No wonder we are headed to hell on a fast pony.

The Chinese made Beeman is junk. That was what I meant from the "cheap" A guy at work bought one of them and the trigger was utter crap not to mention the front sight falling off after only a few dozen shots.

Originally Posted By twonami:Can't go wrong with a RWS54 in .22 cal.
Stay away from the cheap Beeman rifles.

Real shame as the Beemans used to be top quality (had an R8 decades ago and regret getting rid of it).

AFARR

The German beeman rifles are actually rebranded weihrach rifles. Nowadays they added a cheap Chinese line. The German beeman/weihrach are still top notch quality. I always have my spring air rifles tuned. It makes a night and day difference in recoil noise and in some cases accuracy

(I actually knew that they were the old H. Weirauch rifles, but that R8 shot well....much better than I can shoot).

AFARR

I agree, I shot a tuned R8 some time ago and it sent pellets exactly when I was holding. A sure classic air rifle that I wish they still made.

The R8 was based on the HW50/HW55 powerplant. These rifles produced nowhere near the 1,000 fps that every airgun newbie clamors for these days (more like 600-700 fps), but together they represent some of the most pleasant/shootable spring guns ever made. You could not ask for a better basement/backyard gun (Unless it's an FWB300s or RWS 75).

My R8 . . . .

The R8 was based on the old HW50 (not the new HW50). Here's my HW50 in a Maccari stock . . . .

And here's a HW55, a match version of the same powerplant . . .

"It's not a goddamned hobby!!!!" (VTHOKIESHOOTER)

In a truly free country, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms would be the name of a convenience store, not a federal agency

Originally Posted By rkal09:
As most of you, I ain't dipping in my ammo stash till things gets back to normal (will they ever )

So in the mean time thinking about getting an air rifle for target practice.

What do you guys recommend?

What distance do you want to shoot at?

When you say "target" do you mean:
1.) paper targets
2.) plastic army men and spent 9mm cases
3.) knock down steel

If you want to shoot paper targets (or aspirin tablets) in your basement, your airgun choice will be completely different than if you want to shoot knock down steel at 50 yards.

The Mauraders and other pre-charged pneumatics are great if you want to shoot at 25 to 50 yards. If you're going to shoot in your hallway or basement they're definitely overkill. Pre-charged pneumatics are great because they don't have any recoil and you can get some really powerful guns that challenge what you may have thought an airgun was capable of. They will also stretch your budget.

Don't overlook spring guns. Springers are completely self contained. All you need is the gun and pellets. The hassle factor is a lot lower. They're also more difficult to shoot. You WILL learn consistency and follow-through. If you don't your groups will suffer.

My suggestion is to start with a decent break-barrel spring gun to see how much you enjoy shooting airguns. You can start with a Crosman Nitro from Walmart at about $120. They're OK, but the triggers are shitty. A better choice would be an RWS 34. Add a decent air gun scope and some good mounts and you're on your way. An even better choice would be a good Weihrauch such as the HW95/Beeman R9. This will get you started in the world of quality adult airguns with a minimum of expense. No tanks, no hoses, no pumps. Try it and see. You'll always have a place for a good springer, even if you decide to buy a PCP later.

An alternative suggestion would be to find an old match gun. This is actually what I enjoy shooting the most. I have several airguns that would have been Olympics class rifles in the 1960s or 70s. They can be bought for $500 or so and they are capable of far greater accuracy than most mere mortals. The difference in score potential between a 1970s match rifle and a 2013 match air rifle is probably less than five points out of 100. There's a huge difference in cost, though. Popular choices in this class are the FWB 300s, the RWS 75 and the Walther LGR (actually a single stroke pneumatic and not a spring gun). These are wonderful guns to own and shoot if you're content to shoot at traditional 10 meter distances.

"It's not a goddamned hobby!!!!" (VTHOKIESHOOTER)

In a truly free country, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms would be the name of a convenience store, not a federal agency

Before you buy anything go to the yellow forum Air Gun Forum. Spend some time getting to know what you can from the hard core shooters of air guns. Then spend some time at Pyramid Air looking at reviews and prices.

A couple of things to consider

PCP is all the rage. Super accurate, super powerful. They make 9mm and 45 cal units that are legal to hunt deer in some states. The 45 cal has exactly the same velocity, weight, and FPE as 45 ACP. Requires stuff besides the rifle and the pellets to make it work. Stuff you have to haul to where you shoot and stuff that can break.

Springers are accurate enough that you'll not be disappointed IF you can master the fine art of the 'hold'. They come in break barrel and side or under lever. usually single shot. I have two magnums that'll send a .177 pellet supersonic and I can hit a dime at 35 yards all day long. I have a .22 that will destroy a squirrel's head at 30 yards and it shoots half minute of squirrel head every time.

Multi stroke pneumatics are self contained, have no recoil, are generally pretty quiet, but aren't useful past about 25 yards.

CO2 guns require buying CO2 and are very sensitive to temperature.

Single stroke pneumatics are self contained, but don't have much use past 10 yards (the standard for air rifle match shooters)

Those PCP rifles nice, but it looks like I will have to revise the budget because of the additional cost of a pump / a scuba tank.

Heat of the moment it looks like the AirForce Condor has the lead.

For the guys asking:
looking to shoot pretty much the gamut from paper to tin cans to those darn squirrels! Think it could be a good way to get over "cabin fever".
Will be shooting in the yard ( it is huge ).

Side note - this is the first Sunday that I did not hear a single gun shot in the neighborhood. So I must not be the only one around these parts preserving ammo.

Another vote for the benjamin marauder. It's a bolt action 10 shot pellet rifle, very accurate and great for practice. I use a manual hand pump, and usually shoot 30 to 40 rounds, and then take about 2 pumps per shot to recharge it. But as a repeater its great for practice, you can keep your grip and sight picture and just work the bolt. This gives you practice in precision shooting.

It is pretty quiet for indoor use. I like mine, and though it was expensive for me, the extra trigger time it gives me just by walking downstairs to my basement makes it worth it.

If you wanted to get a pellet gun more for handling and practicing quick sight aquisition, I would get a basic crossman co2 repeater. I'm considering something like this myself.

Originally Posted By rkal09:Thanks guys. As usual tons of useful info.

Those PCP rifles nice, but it looks like I will have to revise the budget because of the additional cost of a pump / a scuba tank.

Heat of the moment it looks like the AirForce Condor has the lead.

For the guys asking:
looking to shoot pretty much the gamut from paper to tin cans to those darn squirrels! Think it could be a good way to get over "cabin fever".
Will be shooting in the yard ( it is huge ).

Side note - this is the first Sunday that I did not hear a single gun shot in the neighborhood. So I must not be the only one around these parts preserving ammo.

Beeman R9/Weihrauch HW95 . . . .

"It's not a goddamned hobby!!!!" (VTHOKIESHOOTER)

In a truly free country, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms would be the name of a convenience store, not a federal agency

Originally Posted By Bladeswitcher:I know you said you want to shoot in the yard . . . a big yard . . . but damn it, I went downstairs grabbed these rifles and snapped pics. So, suck it up and look at these rifles . . .

Originally Posted By Bladeswitcher:
I know you said you want to shoot in the yard . . . a big yard . . . but damn it, I went downstairs grabbed these rifles and snapped pics. So, suck it up and look at these rifles . . .

Originally Posted By Bladeswitcher:I know you said you want to shoot in the yard . . . a big yard . . . but damn it, I went downstairs grabbed these rifles and snapped pics. So, suck it up and look at these rifles . . .

You could buy a gun similar to any of those for $400-$600. I guarantee you that any of them would probably be the finest rifle you own. If the firearms world you have to buy high end shotguns or custom made rifles to own anything as nice. Airguns are one of the few hobbies where you can own the absolute best on a modest budget . . . granted you have to settle for obsolete technology but, trust me, neither you or the target will know the difference.

"It's not a goddamned hobby!!!!" (VTHOKIESHOOTER)

In a truly free country, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms would be the name of a convenience store, not a federal agency